Perfection is impossible

Rather than a tool to help us develop a relationship with God, “the commandments are God’s tool to show us our sins,” Cares rightly insists. “[God] knows we need to see our sinfulness before we will see our need for a Savior. A man doesn’t yell for help until he realizes he’s drowning. Likewise, people don’t yell for a Savior until they see they are drowning in sin. That’s what the commandments do. They show us drowning in sin. The last thing the Lord intended when he gave the commandments was for people to create Not Even Once Clubs.”

Everyone needs real law and real gospel

“It is so much better to point [children] to the fact that Jesus not even once sinned – and that he freely gives them his perfection. Already with small children, it is vital to have them focus on how Jesus has cleansed them from their sins rather than encouraging them to think they can remain clean themselves. Jesus, and not themselves, is what children always need to focus on. It’s all about Jesus.

But we adults also need daily reminders about the impossibility of escaping the punishment our sins demand. But, quickly after that reminder, we need to hear the Spirit proclaim, “[Though] all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,... all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23,24).

The only member of the Not Even Once Club

Jesus is the only member of the Not Even Once Club. And because he is, we get the benefit of his perfection.